What to do on a Friday with no work? What to do, what to do…..Well I like to ruin other peoples work schedule by dragging them out to “lunch”.  It all starts innocently enough and then I spring the trap.

“Oh, look where we are, we might as well go see whats new in the Binny’s beer section”

Its like I’m like the high school football jock who’s car just happens to stop running at Make Out Point.  Not that I wanted to make out with Mike, just eat Al Pastor Tacos. Well, one thing led to another and we ended up perusing one of the best beer isles in the city.

Now I’m not one to promote chain shops but this Binny’s has one of the best beer managers around, Adam.  One simple question turns into a half hour conversation and running up and down the isles pointing out all his new favorites. Frankly, this guy is way to into beer.  Mike and I both are completely sick of over hopped beers (you hear that 3 Floyds!!).  So our mission now is to find new varietals we haven’t tried yet.  Now, if you are not yet aware German beer is cheap. Not crappy cheap but really tasty and priced for those of us who don’t have “real” jobs.

You’ll hear about the other beers I bought later, but first I’ll go the German route.  I like bock, marzen, schwartz bier, etc… So in keeping with this tradition I picked up a Schlenkerla Urbock Smokebeer (spell check don’t like that one).  Now it says “smoke beer”, and Adam told me the Urbock was the less smoked of the 3.  After pouring the first ounce in the glass it smelled like somebody lit a campfire in my kitchen. I hate to make the analogy but this is literally tastes like a bacon beer. It has a sugary/fatty mouth and the smoke is straight hardwood.  You get used to the flavor after a couple sips but the first waft is pretty intense.  Is this a session beer? Hmmmm, maybe but I could see the smoke getting annoying after awhile.  Am I going to tell you what to eat it with? NO! I don’t care what you eat it with!

Go by and say “hi” to Adam.  You can’t miss him, long hair, blue Doc’s and a lip ring, everything your stuffy local wine merchant is not. I’ll post up about the other oddities I got later, one of which might be the last bottle available in Chicago!